The Legend Read online

  Something began to burn in his chest. It was a need to find them, to tell them that there was hope and a way out of the gloom and cursed life into which they had been thrown. His wolf agreed and longed for the companionship that only a pack could offer. He might not have known how to fully control his body just yet, but he would. Once he did, there was nothing to stop him from helping those who could not help themselves.

  The sun had risen over England, the threat of death finally behind them. Though the queen still wanted all gypsies out of her country and every peasant and nobleman was willing to turn in old friends for the ransom she offered, Annalette knew that her stay there was not over. Danger lurked in every village and behind every smiling face, but she couldn’t leave. Not yet.

  That was why she hid behind the oak tree, watching John as he bathed in the shallow creek near where they had stopped to rest for the night. Sunlight sparkled off the rippling current and the water droplets that speckled his skin. He faced away from Annalette and her eyes caressed the strong curve of his back.

  A pair of trousers were neatly folded on the bank, probably stolen from a nearby cottage or traveler. The change had rendered him naked, and without her pack, she was without supplies as well. That’s why it was important for her and Gallius to leave soon and find her vitsa. Once she was reunited with them, all would be well, and she could put the unpleasant business of abandoning John behind her.

  She couldn’t leave without seeing the loup-garou one last time. It was a risk to leave John, knowing that her end of the deal had not been fulfilled, but she had no way of tracking down her uncle or any other alpha for that matter. John was a clever man, and now that he knew there was a new world waiting for him, he would find a way to carry on without her. Could she?

  Her heart tugged in two drastically different directions. All she wanted, since the beginning of her scheme, was to bring her family back together and perhaps prove her usefulness. Now, she had fallen hard for the man she thought she could deceive. So far, her trickery had worked, but she hated that it worked so well. She hated how she felt about John and everything that had transpired in such a short time. He had turned her life upside down, which was never in her plans.

  Annalette watched as he cupped water in his hands and tossed it down his shoulders before dipping his head below the surface to rid himself of the grime and dirt from the night before. The part of her that admired John for what he was burst with pride for his accomplishment. He took control of the wolf and worked with it to achieve what he wanted. No victory was ever sweeter than to see a man succeed so effectively.

  A deep frown formed between her eyes as she thought of all the triumphs he would have without her. One day, he would be able to change back and forth at will more fluidly. He’d be able to change into his purest wolf form and command the golden eyes of the loup-garou, but she would not see it. She would see none of it.

  When she turned, her chest heavy with a loss that should never have been hers, she heard him speak.

  “I know you’re there,” John called.

  Annalette froze and listened to the water slosh as he turned and climbed back onto solid ground. Like a fool, she turned and beheld the loup-garou in all his magnificence. Her blood sang with the familiar lustful tunes that she had hoped to never hear again.

  Even when she was awaiting her rescue in the cell, sitting in filth and listening to the moans of the other prisoners awaiting execution, the memory of John’s kiss and touch invaded her thoughts. If Gallius could have sensed her impurity, he would have been utterly disgusted – more than he already was. To Annalette, it was the most natural thing to be so drawn to a man like John.

  After just a day, she knew that he was everything a man should be. Bold, caring, and selfless beyond explanation. He would make a great leader, and Annalette knew that she would have no part in the long future for which he was destined .

  As he approached, river water drizzling down his limbs and chest, Annalette couldn’t help but want to be part of everything he did and everything he was. It was out of the question, but her heart would not listen to reason.

  She turned away again, but his hands gently gripped her hips to prevent her exodus. Her body hummed with expectation and the war between her heart and her mind resumed once more. A soft breath escaped her lips, and her head tilted back until it made contact with one of his broad shoulders.

  His hard arousal pressed against her skirts and she flinched for only a moment before melting into his warm embrace that encircled her torso. Her hands, trembling as they were, found his and gripped tight to keep them still, before he could do something they would both come to regret.

  “Please, don’t,” she whispered.

  Instantly, John dropped his arms and moved away. A coldness passed over her as his absence was keenly felt. If she weren’t pretending, she would have urged him to take her in his arms once more, just to fill the void he had created by pressing his way into her heart and then withdrawing.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, his deep voice rumbling in her chest.

  Annalette swallowed and shook her head. “You’re making this difficult for me,” she admitted.

  She didn’t have to see his face to know that it was crinkled in confusion. He still had no clue about the torment she endured.

  “What? What am I making difficult?”

  Though every part of her wanted to turn and face the man she had tricked, she couldn’t. If she did, she would be lost and beg for what neither of them could have. A future, a life together, a love that was scandalous and forbidden by her people.

  The kiss from the evening before had been a ploy to afford the militiamen more time, as well as to seal the fragile trust between them. Annalette had been desperate to get to her brother, up to forsaking her own innocence and virginity. She allowed John to touch her in places that should have been kept consecrated for marriage. She let herself drown in his lovemaking, but it was a dying ember that could never be rekindled. Not now, not ever. She would be unsatisfied until her dying breath.

  “I must leave,” she finally said, a slight quake in her voice as she let the words float through the morning air.

  John was silent for a moment, before he quietly stepped around to stand in front of her. Annalette’s legs would not obey her command to flee. She felt like a child standing before an angry parent, but John was not angry. He appeared even more confused and heartbroken with his brown eyes narrowed upon her.

  “Leave?” he repeated. “But, you said – “

  “I know what I said,” she snapped with a flick of her wrist. “But, I cannot stay. I must find my family. Gallius is safe, and if we hurry, we can arrive before our family passes into mourning. You did what I asked of you, and for that, I will be forever grateful… But, I can’t stay here.”

  John stepped closer, and that subtle move spurred Annalette into action. She hurried to pass him by, but John grabbed her by the arm.

  “I will go with you.”

  She shook her head. “No. Gallius knows what you are. If you go with us, he will tell my family what you are. You wouldn’t be welcome in the camp.”

  “The forest isn’t safe for the Romani, especially now that militia from Canterbury will be looking for two escaped prisoners. I can escort you through to Dover.”

  She shook her head again, her dark hair tumbling around her shoulders as hot tears stung at the corners of her eyes. “No, John. Gallius will not allow you to join us. He is not like me. He sees loups-garous as unbalanced beasts. He sided with my family when they exiled my uncle. I cannot put you through such persecution.”

  John’s grip tightened on her arm, but not with bruising force as she had expected. “I can follow from a distance.”

  She stamped her bare foot in the lush grass and slashed her arm through the air as if trying to push away his constant rebuttals. “I cannot bear your company, up close or from a distance. Don’t put me through this torture,” she cried.

  The tears flooded dow
n her cheeks. It was hard to leave her family. It was hard to allow herself the dishonor of being arrested and thrown into prison for hours, but, to leave him was the hardest challenge she ever had to face. If she had to break his heart to get away, then so be it. She would not leave these woods with the loup-garou in tow. Yet, the knowledge that she would never see him again was enough to shatter her spirit. How could she live without him?

  John released her, but Annalette did not run immediately. She walked ahead, her chest and shoulders quivering with the silent sobs. He did not follow, at least not that she could tell.

  Annalette must have made it only a few yards before the weight of her sorrow descended upon her like a heavy mantel, and she crumbled to the forest floor. John was there to catch her, and she cried into his chest, her fingers splayed across his skin.

  Tender hands brought her in, but it was his warmth that soothed her soul and provoked her to explain her hysterical show of emotion. For once, her brokenness was not a trick.

  “I’ve lied to you, John,” she said through her whimpers. “I’ve lied to you from the beginning. I can’t continue with you, knowing that I’ve treated you so vile.”

  “What did you lie about?” he asked. “Is Gallius not your brother?”

  Annalette laughed through her tears. “Nothing so harmless. I knew you were a loup-garou before we ever met. I heard rumors about something that was stealing captured game from traps, and when I investigated, I recognized that it wasn’t any ordinary beast taking the game. There was intelligence behind it. So, I knew it must have been a loup-garou.

  “I took a chance letting those two beggars harass me. I provoked them into trying to force themselves on me, because I knew you were close by. I had no idea you would kill them. I knew from my experience with my uncle that I could use you to help me get Gallius out of prison. I took us to the Thompson’s homestead because I knew they would tell the authorities that I was there. They betrayed my brother, and I knew they would betray me.”

  Annalette sniffled back a fresh wave of regret. “I deceived you into helping me, and now I am no better than what they say about gypsies. I cannot take you to my uncle or to an alpha. I don’t know where to begin searching for them, and nor do I want to. I need to be with my family. I can’t travel as you have encouraged before. There are so many things I should have never done with you, never told you. I have lied and cheated you.” She looked into his face, mustering every ounce of dignity that she had left in her. “But, you have done something far worse. You have stolen my heart.”

  She expected John to rage, to roar like a beast and toss her into the dirt like the sinful vixen he had accused her of being the night before. He did nothing of the sort. He gazed upon her with a look that Annalette couldn’t distinguish.

  John pulled her in tighter and kissed her lips that were seasoned with her tears. Annalette did not beat against his chest or struggle to get free of his hold, but gave into the kiss and sighed against his mouth without question.

  The kiss was as fervent as it had been the night before, but now there were no secrets between them, and she was not compelled to carry on the charade. He was aware of her treachery and what she had done to him, but his kiss told her plainly that he was not furious with her. Why? She might never know.

  That honest kiss and every caress that followed sent Annalette into the storm of passion and longing that she had tried to avoid since the minute she realized that she could come to care for John as more than a pawn in her ruse. It overtook her and rendered her defenseless against the loup-garou.

  He lowered her to the ground, and they finished what they had started the evening before. With her vest open and skirt hiked to her waist, John pleasured her in every way that a woman could wish. In a blur of fiery desire, his hands and mouth moved across her body to places that had never been awakened before, sending her deeper into the depths of passion and thrilling her body from the tips of her toes to the untouched recesses of her mind.

  She raked her nails across his skin, and he shuddered as he let out a low growl against her neck. It was a growl of pleasure and not of anger. She explored his body, touching and stroking in as many places as he would allow, and he did not bar her from anywhere.

  His hard arousal slid up her thigh and she gasped as the heat of expectation flooded between her legs. One of his arms hooked around her back, lifting just enough to receive him with ease. Her taut nipples pressed into his bare chest and she moaned against his shoulder. The energy, the tingling between her legs, continued to build as he teased her with his kisses that traveled down her neck, to her shoulders, and then to her chest.

  He took her breast in his mouth and suckled until she was sure she would burst with ecstasy. She gripped his hair, silently begging him to linger there until the world ended, but there was more to experience, more to savor.

  His lips seized hers once more as he moved closer and closer to the center of the heat. The unbearable wait for the moment when two would become one was more than she could bear. She wrapped her legs around his waist, crossing her ankles to keep him securely there until the deed was done.

  John pulled back to meet her feverish eyes. A question lay there, but he should have known the answer. Annalette wiggled downward until she found the tip of his moist cock. His body went rigid as a groan rattled his chest. Just to hear that she could please him so thrilled her just as much as his caresses.

  When he entered her, filling the core of her desire, they moaned and spiraled higher and higher like two mating birds. The bliss of every movement sent her soaring, and Annalette wanted nothing more than this moment to last for all eternity, suspended in the glorious union of two people in love.

  There was an end and what a superb ending it was. She shuddered as her body and flesh burned with the yearning for release. When it came, Annalette dug her nails into John’s arms and let out a shriek of pleasure and let herself go limp in his embrace.

  At the same time, she felt him swell inside of her, pulsating with his own release as they came to the climax of their passion together.

  Breathless and weak, they laid in each other’s arms as the world carried on around them, as if nothing magical had just taken place in the forests of England. Annalette could feel her heartbeat throughout her body, making her limbs twitch with the residual effects of John’s love.

  There was no accurate way to describe the euphoria Annalette experienced, nor the joy that filled her soul with the knowledge that John seemed to have forgiven her, though she had completely betrayed his trust in her. There was no hatred in his lovemaking, nor resentment in anything he did to her. Everything was saturated with love and longing. How could they go their separate ways after this?

  She rolled her head to the side and met his lips one more time. John brushed his nose against hers and grinned at her in that dazzling way that made her core tighten with eagerness for more.

  “I will follow you both from a distance,” he whispered, his breath pluming upon her face, “and make sure that you arrive to your family safely.”

  Annalette reached out and found the strength to take hold of his arm. “But… what about you?” she asked, searching his expression for any hint that he wasn’t serious. How could they do what they just did and part ways so casually? She couldn’t do it. Not anymore.

  “You belong with your family,” he said, his smile fading. “If that is your choice, I will find an alpha on my own.”

  She squeezed his arm. “Will you come back?” she asked, her voice thick with emotion.

  He nodded. “If you’ll allow me.”

  Annalette pressed another kiss to his lips and rolled onto her side. “If my vitsa could accept you too, would you stay?”

  “Gallius already knows what I am,” he reminded her, his words laced with remorse. “If he tells them, it’ll be just as you said. We would be no better off than if I had never stepped foot in your camp.”

  Her bottom lip quivered as her chest clenched with dread. John was rig
ht, but Annalette didn’t want it to be so. She couldn’t lose him, not after all they had been through. “I can’t do this.”

  John bent his head to hers. “You are Romani,” he said slowly, enunciating each word as if they were the bread of life made especially for her. “You belong with your family, and I belong in a pack.”

  “Then I’ll come with you.”

  “I could never ask that you leave your home and family for me.”

  “What if I offered? What if I said I wanted to?”

  It went against everything she had been taught to believe. Family was everything. It was why she risked her life to save Gallius. It was why she defended Nicu. It was why she had tried so hard to be everything they expected her to be and why she failed so miserably at being a Romani woman.

  John had shown her another way. There was a whole world out waiting to be seen. Their talk about traveling no longer seemed so impossible now that they had each other. Perhaps she was naïve. Perhaps she was placing her heart in his hands too readily. But she knew what she felt, and if he asked her to, she’d pull down the very stars in the heavens just to make him smile. He had become more precious to her than any family she had.

  He shook his head. “You’re not thinking clearly.”

  Annalette sat up and placed her hands upon his chest, feeling his heartbeat drum against her palms. “My mind has never been this clear, John Croxen. Whether it’s pure or not, I love you.”

  His lips parted, but he did not return the sentiment as she had predicted. It was then that she second guessed herself. Did he not feel the same all along? The passion they shared just moments before, had it been nothing to him? What about the bond that connected them? Was that not real too?

  Gazing deep into his eyes, she knew that what they shared had been true. It was not a trick to gain acceptance. Annalette bared herself, wholly and completely. John, on the other hand, was still hesitant, and she could only guess it was because of her previous deception. It would take more than a few mawkish words to earn his trust again.